Forum Feedback Where is TE headed?

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Gannu said:
In which case, we shall henceforth ask him to browse through the previous posts in case a similar query has been answered already else we shall answer the query.

Point is other members should follow suit - they should not be answering all redundant queries which would simply clutter the thread.
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In that case, the last few pages of a mega thread will simply be a collection of people asking queries, with the standard response saying check old posts. Trust me :P

You're missing the point anyway. A mega thread becomes a huge pot-pourri of *disconnected* discussion. I don't think it can replace clear-cut individual threads for each aspect of discussion. We're not running short of thread space.
 
+1 for not merging every single thread together just because it is vaguely related to a mega-thread.

also while browsing I would remember certain keywords in the title which makes it easier to search and help out a newbie but if it was buried somewhere in a mega thread I wouldn't be bothered to search and sift through all the threads. So a certain amount of seggregation is useful.
 
How about the following?

1. A Tagging mechanism and a Tag Cloud.

2. A way to bump a post up or down.

3. A way to mark a post as Answered/Unanswered/Reraised

4. Thread Showcase wherein a well formed and informative thread will be put-up the way we do for a Guide/Review etc.
 
sarang said:
How about the following?

1. A Tagging mechanism and a Tag Cloud.

2. A way to bump a post up or down.

3. A way to mark a post as Answered/Unanswered/Reraised

4. Thread Showcase wherein a well formed and informative thread will be put-up the way we do for a Guide/Review etc.
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What will be the objective of point 2?

Can you elaborate point 4
 
Really like the tag cloud idea. It's a good solution to the mess of similar posts.

Where is the TS? After opening this can of worms he has just disappeared. I don't know what his intentions were :lol:
 
Tags is the only way i can think of to deal with similar threads.

keywords like UPS, AC, PSU, brings up all threads with those words. Unfortunately 3 letter words are not liked by the search engine. It also allows to bump a specific thread if more info is needed.

But this requires a forum mod, there is no 'similar thread' facility that i've noticed on this board.

Finally it requires tagging of such threads manually :(
 
6pack said:
I know I sound silly putting up the wiki proposition again and again, but it has its benefits. It can be updated frequently and sections can be added and removed at will. We just need dedicated folks for it.
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Yeah, that might be the best way to go. Especially the articles/guides etc would get a better presentation on the wiki and it doesn't affect the structure of the forum too much. I wonder if it would be possible for members to not have to re-register on the wiki too, though.
 
okay forget merging , but seriously there is always a deluge of what lcd for 30k , which is best 32" lcd , 32 " vs 40 " .... all very similar threads .... someway to compact them , encouraging the people to read the various issues of lcd ...or something like that , i am not sure how that will work ....sometimes i had to sift through 4 or 5 threads to get the answer i need , because the knowledagble person wont have the time /inclination to post in every single thread on the same subject
 
Renegade said:
What will be the objective of point 2?

Can you elaborate point 4
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Sorry for the misleading wording. I meant a way to propose a post as answer/blabber. That way useful posts would turn higher up in the thread and the irrelevant blabber may go towards the last pages.This will lessen the policing required as patrons themselves know what proved useful to them and what not.

Hint* MSDN forums.

For point 4. : There are some legendary threads, like Mobile suggestion, the stickied PSU debate thread, some uber cool audio threads thanks to cranky, chaos and the likes.

Now we have some system forgot the name :ashamed: wherein the review/preview/guide is pushed to the TE homepage. Similarly we could have a thread on the homepage which could be mod selected / nominated by vote.
 
Kippu,

Thats the idea, a way for them to be collectively viewed. On other forums you can see at the bottom a list of related threads. The key for that display is a common tag, and gets around the different spellings in the title, even misspellings which are so commmon. Ideally it would pull all threads ever discussed on the subject, plenty of food for thought.

Maybe a way to search again within that list to cut down the numbers for something specific.
 
I think the wiki here has a better option of compacting such info. People can edit it to update the info. Aurthorship can be shared amongst people willing to help.

Once the wiki is up, its a matter of setting up a few global announcements and correct a few people once or twice and advertise it on TE a bit and it should be up and running as intended.

Yes, I know its more effort then the lines posted here, but there has to be a start for us to see if this is possible.

Once way to start is to see what are the most 15 topics that cause a thread and try and consolidate the info in form of a wiki.
 
SharekhaN said:
Once way to start is to see what are the most 15 topics that cause a thread and try and consolidate the info in form of a wiki.
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That is THE way. So which are the common topics?
 
@Rene, Almost all the topics have some most common asked questions.

Ex:

Applications - Which is best software for xxx?

OS - 32 or 64 bit os?

P2P - best torrent site?

Open Source - which is best *nix for beginners?

PC Peripherals - which ups/psu/xxx ?

Audio Zone - which speakers/earphones in xxx?

CPU/Mobo - which cpu/mobo for my xxx budget?

Graphic Cards - which graphics card below xxx?

Storage Solns - which dvd writer?

Broadband - which ----kbps conn in xxx?

Consumer Elect - which wm/fridge/ac/tv/etc below xxx?

General Portables - which mp3 player/camera below xxx?

Laptops - which netbook/laptop in xxx?

Mobiles - which mobile in xxx?

Seems lots of people rely more on others opinion while buying rather than making their own or maybe everyone's confused.
 
Ok this is gonna be long. I have avoided posting here for last few days as some of my views might sound little excessive and over the line :P

There are wave trends in forums. It has always been the case.

When something new hits the scene, there will be flood of similar queries in that particular section.

e.g.

1. threads about Radeon 5xxx problems and fixes and other queries.

2. Countless multiple threads we had when Nokia 5800xm was released resulting in dedicated thread for that.

3. Same with iPhone.

4. Remember those IP35 days when every other day someone will keep asking about that board?

These things are bound to happen.

Making entire forum look like a Q&A form will destroy the essence of forum.

Similarly I hope the rating system that is suppose to come does not mess with the topic flow as it did in some other forums where highest rated posts were highlighted and brought up.

The main point is, forums change. The people here keep changing and so does the content depending on the people and their interests.

Not very long back we would have had long discussion about that RV870 AT article. Not anymore. Why? because people are no longer interested and lack of focus which I felt we had coming when we decided to relax the moderation at a time when actually could have done something.

And other reason for lack of quality technology discussion on TE is because of lack of people who are willing to participate or discuss those things.

Here the other problem of limited traffic form outside India also comes into picture. We are still not tech savvy nation regardless what we might want to believe.( in terms of percentage as well as sheer number )

The number of people interested in understanding and evaluating and discussing core technologies is very limited.

Most questions asked are some very easy to fix issues which people face simply because of lack of knowledge. I don't mean to say they shouldn't ask those questions, they should and people should also answer those questions without making smack comments about using search or google. If you have time to post "Google is your friend", you also have time to post the link to the solution with that ;)

It all boils down to the mentality of the people participating in forums. If we lost focus down the line, its our own fault. There are no quick fixes, but if you want us to head back to right direction, be prepared for some more moderation which might look as excessive, but it will be needed, and be prepared to participate yourself.

The less we change how to go about the things, better it will be. Putting restrictions on market or GT is not the solution. The solution lies in controlling tech sections. The crap that gets posted there needs better and stricter handling. If some guys come here for just market. let em, they dont hurt other sections, but the idiotic, stupid, useless posts in tech sections and lack of discussion hurt the forum. (Lack of discussion is biggest worry here at the moment.)

And the main thing which we must remember that TE is a community and a forum.

Forum is a place for free flowing discussions and its not a Q&A site.
 
Right now, when I look at the the technology sections its starting to look similar to yahoo questions/answers. The way questions are pouring in, and the replies people are pasting. Most of the time logic is not defined for the answer, and at maximum people will save graphs/charts to imageshack and link them. Where is the understanding, the technology know-how..? As a group we have to encourage more detailed discussions, and when debates open up -- back them with sound reasoning and data points. How...?

Foremost the forums headers should get restructured. They are far too broad as of now. Everything gets dumped in one section. Well you may argue "spreading the cr** thinner does not make it easier to handle". But I feel this would be a start, and make handling a bit easier. This way moderators/admins will have a easier time managing sections. As of now everything pertaining to GPUs is dumped in one section. It can be broken down into ATI GPUs, nVidia GPUs, ATI drivers, AMD boards, Intel Boards...etc. Also hardware procurement queries should be separated from hardware queries. Though there is a lot of overlap here and they are interoperable but this will clearly distinguish both. There will be less clutter, and posters can choose where to go as per the flavor they prefer.

Greater control has to be put in place regarding quality control. I guess the hardware buying section will always have this. But where genuine technology discussions happen, a stricter level of moderation/review process have to be put in place. Not sure how this can be handled. If the question can be first filtered to a team, than made visible would make more sense. But this would be really difficult to manage and implement. But again, what some find as dumb and noob, another may answer it, thinking else wise. Stuff like "great choice and +1 to xxxx post, I would have done the same". Lines like this should be deleted with extreme prejudice. Cross posting is another issue. I started a thread for it, but the response was lame, far from even luke-warm. More like "shrug my shoulders, as if I care". It has to be drilled down, that this place is not a joke, you cannot come in here and goof off. Get your answer and walk away. We have a huge sections for rules and regulations. I doubt that is even read. Would be interesting to see (if the team can check), how many hits a day that page gets -- and how many new comers read it. If there are rules, they should be implemented.

But having said all this, a start must happen to see changes begin to happen.
 
^ Not sure about splitting up too much, the forum structure is already getting too long.. but a bit of re-organisation is needed.

About people shrugging their shoulders etc for your other thread, I think you are terribly misinformed about cross posting and I suggest heading back and reading yout thread once again. What you suggested was akin to - in automobile terms - asking everyone to stop making similar cars because Maruti makes one ;)
 
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